At a meeting with the Catholic media prior to his trip to Italy and audience with Pope Benedict XVI , Obama spoke of the difficulty he is having reconciling his faith with LGBT issues:

“For the gay and lesbian community in this country, I think it’s clear that they feel victimized in fairly powerful ways and they’re often hurt by not just certain teachings of the Catholic Church, but the Christian faith generally. And as a Christian, I’m constantly wrestling with my faith and my solicitude and regard and concern for gays and lesbians.”

For many Catholics and people of faith there is no “wrestling” or struggle. No inner turmoil. Gays are either to repent and abstain from their “lifestyle” or burn for all eternity.

Sure, many will accuse Obama of being two-faced, or criticize him for playing to both sides of the issue. But hopefully some will appreciate his honesty about the struggle. I suspect we would be a lot farther along in the gay civil rights movement if more individuals, more people of faith, also carried that struggle in their heart.

After losing a lawsuit accusing the city of San Francisco of hostility toward the Catholic Church, Richard Thompson of the Thomas Moore Law Center had some harsh words for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, drawing on the holocaust for inspiration:

“It is not a stretch to compare the San Francisco board’s actions to that of the Nazi Germany policy of Gleichschaltung, vilifying Jews as an auxiliary to and laying the groundwork for more repressive policies, including the final solution of extermination.”

Filed on behalf of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (CLRCR), the lawsuit accused a board of supervisors resolution of violating the constitutional requirement of government neutrality toward religion. The resolution which originally passed in 2006, denounced an order from the Vatican to Catholic Charities decreeing that adoptive children could not be placed with same-sex couples because it “would actually mean doing violence to these children.” The resolution called the Vatican order “hateful and discriminatory rhetoric” and asked that local Catholic officials ignore it. They did not, and actually stopped placing adoptive children entirely.

CLRCR is headed by Bill Donohue, a rabidly anti-gay, anti-progressive Catholic apologist who regularly appears on cable news networks promulgating his views. Recently Donohue characterized an Irish report detailing abuse of children by Catholic priests and nuns as “hysterical,” even to one of its victims.

Sometimes hypocrisy is subtle, and sometimes it screams from the rooftops. Mr. Thompson, I’d suggest you and the Thomas Moore Law Center refrain from referencing Nazis and the final solution when defending the Catholic faith, particularly when considering the role the Catholic Church played in Nazi abuses during World War II. And Mr. Donohue, don’t you see the irony in defending your church against multiple cases of child abuse, while at the same time participating in a lawsuit which defends your church’s right to accuse same-sex parents of essentially the same thing? Astonishing.

This case unfortunately is far from over. The Thomas More Law Center has asked for a rehearing and will take their case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

The Catholic church has called it a scandal.  They’ve stripped Albert Cutie of his position as pastor of his church. They’ve taken away his radio show he will be sent away to reflect and pray.

No… he’s not a pedophile…. he simply kissed and hugged a woman on a beach.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jwfWcuaZ9U[/youtube]

Oh the hypocrisy.

Catholic Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz said that gays could serve as priests in the Catholic Church provided they passed the required academic and psychological tests.

From The Philstar News Service (quotes in bold translated from Tagalog):

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said the Church imposes no ban on effeminate or those perceived to be gay men who want to be priests.

“They are the same just like everybody. So there’s no discrimination,” Cruz said in a radio interview this morning.

He said it all depends on how the person controls his sexual urges when he is already in the seminary or convents.

“Just like gay people we as priests also have to fight the temptation towards women,” Cruz said.

He noted that there are gay priests serving in the Churches but they have passed the required academic and psychological tests.

The archbishop said there are many heterosexual men who have not been allowed to enter the seminaries because they failed to meet these requirements.

This is not the first time Cruz has voiced support for the gay community, having favored the rights of gays to join religious processions.

From the Manilla Standard…

But Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz disagreed, saying he did not oppose gays joining the religious procession as long as they acted with dignity and wore formal dresses.

“If they are devotees, they are religious and they look decent, I believe they have the right to join in,” Cruz said.

“I think it would be better for us to see gays who act formally and decently in the Santacruzan rather than young and beautiful women who are not clean and [are] immoral,” he said.

I am try so desperately hard to avoid jokes about heterosexuals unqualified to be priests and unclean, immoral women. But I must resist. 🙂

In any event, this is as “gay friendly” an attitude we are likely to get from the church in one of the most Catholic countries on the planet. Bravo Father Cruz! Bravo!

Visit the Archbishop’s blog…

Note: Thanks to my husband for providing the translations…